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Easthampton City Arts
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THE NEXT NORTHAMPTON
You all probably heard that expression at one time or another: "Easthampton is the next Northampton". A couple of years ago it came up a lot when the housing market was bubbling up and real estate prices were scaring people away from Northampton to Easthampton in search for more affordable homes and were driving Easthampton prices up by doing so. I don't hear that too much anymore these days, wonder why? Now I hear it more often when something artistically exciting is happening in Easthampton, like when I mention the upcoming Easthampton Bear Fest, or during the monthly Art Walk Easthampton when visitors from out of town see the large crowds that the A.W.E. venues attract and they witness Easthampton's dynamic and prolific art scene.
"Easthampton is the next Northampton."
Is it just me, but it seems that when I hear that it's often with a pinch of condescendence, like little Easthampton is growing up to be like her big sister, or like we actually WANT to be like Northampton and are working hard to resemble our neighbor to the North.
Well, condescendence or not it really annoys me that people should compare the two cities. After all they are totally different: different pasts, different topography, different just about everything really. Northampton has a College, Easthampton a Prep School, Northampton many bars,
 Easthampton has a Bottle,
Northampton has parking meters, Easthampton doesn't, Northampton has panhandlers and Easthampton doesn't (they know what they're doing...), Easthampton is Tautznik and Northampton Higgins, Northampton has many empty storefronts, Easthampton has - well ok, there are some similarities.
I love living and working in Easthampton, but I also love having Northampton just a few miles away. And I love their differences.
And I'm sure I can speak for quite a few people of Easthampton and say that we don't really want to "become the next Northampton". After all we're having way too much fun becoming...
The Next Easthampton!
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At the Elusie Gallery
10 days only, don't miss
The 2nd Annual
Easthampton High School
Arts Festival
Mondorl Chhung
It all started last year thanks to an initiative by the Easthampton Arts Appreciation Guild funded by a grant from the Easthampton Cultural Council: this project allowed students from the EHS arts classes to be involved not only in the creative aspect of the art but to follow through by having their artwork framed and then exhibited in an art gallery.
Because of the succes of this first edition it was decided to do it again this year: for the last few weeks, students have come in groups of 2 to 4 to Eastmont Custom Framing with a selection of their work, first to learn about the effects matboards and frames can have on their artwork and then to actually do their own framing by cutting matboards, glass and foamcore, and assemble the metal frames that they had selected.
Janna Centrella
The result is a very professional looking exhibit of original and often very creative work by these "artists in the making".
All the framed work by these talented students will be on display at the Elusie Gallery from Aprill 22 until April 30.
I am personnally inviting you to discover this body of work, it's an exhibit wroth visiting by "artists" worth encouraging.
The Artists Reception is Saturday April 25 from 5 to 8pm.
Tim Cunningham
The Elusie Fine Art Gallery is located in
Easthampton's Historic Town Hall
at 43 Main Street, Easthampton.
For more information and to check the gallery hours,
please visit our website
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Maybe you thought about "painting a bear" but found the prospect a bit daunting - maybe you heard about it too late - maybe you submitted an application but were not among the 30 or so artisits selected to decorate the fiberglass bears that will brighten up Easthampton this Summer. Whatever the reason, this is you chance to be part of the Easthampton Bear Fest anyway: The Eastmont Art Fund's 3rd annual fundraising exhibit is going to benefit this ambitious project organized by
Easthampton City Arts.
CALL TO ARTISTS
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~ Eligibility: applicant has to be working or living in the Pioneer Valley, MA.
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~ Media: two-dimensional art created by the applicant within the last 2 years. 1 item per applicant.
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~ Theme: "Bear Necessities". The sighting of Bears is increasingly common in our neighborhoods as these animals are getting bolder in their search for subsistence while - or because - their natural habitat is being threatened by urban sprawl. Applicants artwork can include Bears of course, but also what Bears need to exist in a natural, healthy and sustainable way - for example the landscapes in which they live, the food they eat -- or artwork can depict the challenges and threat that bears or other wildlife are faced with because of human encroachment into their natural habitat.
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~ The exhibition will be held at the Elusie Fine Art Gallery in Easthampton 's Old Town Hall July 25 - August 29.
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~ Reception and Jury Results on opening day July 25.
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~ Criteria for jury deliberation: artistic merit, creativity, originality, and relevance to the theme.
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~ The application is to include an artist statement related to the submitted artwork..
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~ The winning artwork will become part of the Eastmont Art Fund Collection: the original work will be auctioned off and a limited edition giclee print will be published.
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~ An artist commission of 30% will be given for all artwork sold during the exhibition, and of 20% for the prints made from the winning entry.
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~ New this year: the fundraiser will be held in the form of a silent auction. Bidding will start on July 25 and end August 29. Bidding updates will be posted regularly on this page and communicated weekly by email. Bids will be accepted on site, by phone or via email.
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~ Application deadline : May 31st, 2009 .
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~ Deadline for delivery of artwork: June 30 th, 2009
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~ Application fee : $20.00
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~ The E.A.F. reserves the right to limit the number of artworks exhibited.
For more information and to request an application package, please call 413-529-9265 or e-mail artfund@eastmontgallery.net. To learn more about the Easthampton Bear Fest, visit www.easthamptonbearfest.com
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Eastmont Customers exhibit
I said in my last email that I would no longer accept requests to post events on my newsletter and then immediately contradicted myself by posting a few anyway.
After that I received some anxious emails asking me whether I would still post anouncments if they were from Eastmont's customers.
The answer is yes. Yes whenever I remember or whenever you remind me!
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One advantage we framers have is that we get to have a sneak preview of upcoming shows when we frame artwork that is going to be exhibited. We just finished some work for Paul Yandoli, an Easthampton resident who has been doing photography for a long time but has not really let many people see his work.
All we can say is: why did he wait so long?
He will be on exhibit at the Jones Library's Burnett Gallery in Amherst in May. Go check it out, definitively worth crossing the river!
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We also completed some work by Mary Nelen that many of you may know because of her blog on the Valley Advocate's website: The Valley Locavore.
What you may not know is that Mary is a writer AND a photographer: The work that she is going to exhibit during the month of May at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke represents a year of eating and living locally.
The "food fetish" images concentrate on local foraged food while the "flora fetish" is represented through the gorgeous images available in March: Blooming orchids and other exotics from the annual ritual of the Spring Flower Show. Come view Mary's exciting photographs and learn about her life as a locavore, definitively worth going over the mountain!
For more info, check the museum's website, link up there somewhere on the left column.
By the way it's Mary's first exhibit also.
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Printmakers Lilly Pereira and Doris Madsen are now exhibiting in a two-women show titled "Out-of-Print" at Zea Mays Printmaking gallery, Florence until May 8. Both artists use and re-use culled images from book, library and hand-written ephemera beginning as small pieces framed-in-time and resulting in images that convey larger meanings both on a personal and collective level.
Pereira will exhibit her prints alongside the collages from which they are derived. Her pieces depict the stories and archetypes of mythology, indicative of personal reflection as well as universal truths.
Madsen's mixed media prints displayed with assemblages develop out of images of actual hand-written library catalog and the titles of nineteenth century books. Incorporating elements of collage and thread, her intent is to convey historical relevancy and interconnectedness with our present lives.
The artist's reception will be at Zea Mays Printmaking, 221 Pine St. Studio 320, Florence tonight, 5:30 - 7:30.
For further information, contact the studio at 413-584-1783.
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More Eastmont related artists in our May Newsletter
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Thank you for reading
and for enjoying
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